Being a reader of Arabic as a foreign language, I have observed that the Biblical text often shows a different dynamic to the one existing in the European languages when it comes to the issue of possessing and having. Especially from the socio-political background in Lebanon this matter proves to be very important for any dialogue movement, as well as for daily coexistence between the three religions. This communication will try to go to the roots and sources of a culture common to the Semitic peoples living on the East Coast of the Mediterranean and looks for bridges that would improve understanding beyond all religious and geographical boundaries.

The research method is based on a comparative reading between the Arabic translations (SVD 1867; ABJ 1989; GNA 1993) and the original Hebrew text as in BHS4. Thus, we find that many word stems and their derivatives are common to Arabic and to Hebrew, as it is the case in the expression yrsh ‘rz, (to possess the land), which we are dealing with in this article. for more...

Cited in:The Sense of Possessing the Land in the Hebrew Bible and its Perception in Modern Arabic Translations. In Parole de l’Orient 37 (2012), 35-45.